Tag: Old Vines Scarf

Old Vines Scarf: Pattern & Process

Friday was a really big day for me!  I decided to post to Ravelry, and to here, my first “pay for” pattern.  It is the that I wrote about last March.  You can find it on the “Patterns for Sale” page.  Please give some consideration to buying this pattern!

Writing up a pattern takes some time, as does creating the knitting schematic, shooting the pictures, doing a layout, and finally creating the PDF file that goes along with it!  It really is a major process, far more than I anticipated.  And the thing is, the item has to be knitted before you can photograph it.

I used Knit Visualizer for the pattern schematic.  It is a fairly expensive piece of software, but it is really worth the price paid because it is so easy to use.

My camera is a Casio Exilim, and I can get pretty decent pictures with it.  My preferred settings are with all 9 sensors being used, along with soft flash and a +1 light setting.

For the PDF, I begin in MS Publisher, and then create the document using text boxes, clip art, my photos, and Knit Visualizer schematics saved in a PNG format, and then imported to Paint Shop, and saved as a JPEG.  Once I am happy with my Publisher file, I save it, and then, beginning on the first page, I “save as” and create a PNG file.  Finally, I use Acrobat Pro to create the PDF by choosing “create PDF from multiple files.”  My preferred PDF is “highest quality” for better detail.  It works very well.

Photos are really odd creatures.  You think you have a good one, but you don’t.  This is why I love digital pictures and software.  Cutting, editing, whatever – all can be done pretty readily.  Fonts and so on are also important, for headers, subheads, and content.  Everything needs to work well together.  The direction of a model in the layout leads the eye in, or out, of the page.  Busy-ness is distracting.  Too-much-of-the-same, in density and visual rhythm creates a visual yawn.

Anyway, there you go.  Here are some of the more than 40 pictures I took for the photo shoot.  These were some I liked, in addition to the ones you will find in the Old Vines Scarf pattern itself.

Old Vines Scarf

Last week I completed a scarf I had been knitting for awhile, using up some of the stash I “discovered” (read “rediscovered”!) out in the garage:  3 balls of a handpainted Paton’s yarn I bought some time ago.

Once finished, I did something I have never done in my life – I blocked a knitted item!  To do this, yet another item was excavated – the cutting board from my sewing days.  T-pins were boughten from the nearby JoAnn’s.  Then, into the washing machine on the washable woolens cycle, soaked and rinsed, spun out, and given a final soak in hair rinse before the final spin-out.  Then, out to the patio, to the picnic table, and the process began.  The old cutting board was spread out, the scarf was flattened and blocked out.  It sat there from about 8 a.m. to the end of the day.

The scarf wanted to curl up on itself, so the first step was to move along its very long length (just over 6 feet), and begin patting it flat.

Next decision on how wide it was going to be.  I decided on 8 inches wide, and pinned it out so that the curves created by the pattern were enhanced.  I pinned each crest on the edge out to 3 inches apart.  Making the scarf 8 inches wide opened up the eyelets – on the needles, the scarf was about 6 inches.

The scarf was too long for the cutting board, so I folded it over on itself.  Dried, there was a bit of a crease, but easily enough steamed out.

On the backside of the scarf, you can see the pattern of the eyelets.  These next pictures give a better idea about the color of the yarn, as well as the overall pattern.

The picture below is a pretty good approximation of the real color of the yarn – soft and misty.

Normally, I don’t really like variegated yarns with lace or textural patterns.  Everything gets lost in the color, so why waste the energy on a fancy design as well?  This, though, worked out.  The colors are soft and subtle, and make me thing of vineyards in the fall and the fog rolls in.  Soft colors, subtle shadings.

Next on the agenda:  write up the pattern, take “professional” pictures (ha!) with my husband modeling, and create the pdf file.  This, and my Clouds beret are nearly ready for publication and offering on Ravelry!  Tomorrow, my in-laws are coming for brunch, and my MIL, Judy, will be bringing her Clouds for show and tell.

And in the meantime – ARF!  I’m actually knitting Continental, using what I learned from Heather’s Norwegian Purl video.  Sweet!  The only thing I do differently is how I knit – I knit through the front of the stitch, but do that oh-so-easy Norwegian Purl.  (What a pearl of a video!)  Pictures at a later date!